How Books Change the World
While writing, described in broad strokes, is an introspection into ourselves and an explanation of what our imagination comes up with, the conclusion of our craft is placing our words into the hands of readers.
There is no relationship quite like one between an author and a reader.
Authors get to have a unique and influential place in a reader’s life. We write the words they go to for escape, the words from which they glean insight on themselves and learn new views on life. We get to be a voice—an influence—in the lives of our readers.
A relationship like this is powerful, remarkable, and deserving of not being underestimated.
A reader has given our words the time and chance to make a difference in their life, and a writer’s job is to not let down the reader, but to give them something worthy of reading.
Writers have the ability to show love to their readers by giving them something truly special to devour with their mind. It’s how we get to spread love, joy, and wisdom to the world.
The beauty of this topic is something I look forward to digging into with you. Below we will discuss the influence writers possess, the opportunity to shower love on our readers, and how we can write something worthwhile for our readers.
The Author-Reader Relationship
It isn’t hard to guess you love books immensely—you have probably devoured many.
While I have read a lot, from each book I’ve read I can tell you something I learned. From each story there has come an internal change, a new thought, or a realization I have come away with. Sometimes the impression was good and other times bad, but I always came away with something.
Books change us when we read. They bring to us experiences, thoughts, and reflections we often find nowhere else. There is no better feeling than finishing the last page of a book and feeling like you just finished the journey alongside the protagonist.
Being a reader we expect something great from books. As a writer, however, that leaves a lot of pressure on our shoulders to fill the expectation.
It’s all well and good reading something fantastic, but to write something so great? It’s a high bar to reach.
If you appreciate the beauty of this relationship, though, you can accomplish it. Knowing your role in a reader’s life is the first step to fulfilling it.
Facing opposite the reader is intimidating, but a great book is possible to pull off.
Back to Love…
How does this relationship start? Well, it starts how our relationship with writing began—with love.
The time for loving your readers has arrived.
Why is love so important? Let me return the question. What happens when we love something?
Answer: We put our best effort into our work, even when it calls us to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to the page.
When passion is involved our words shine brighter. By loving your readers you will want to give them something superb, intelligent, and original. These products will flow from you and negate the need to painfully dig them out from within yourself.
It’s the natural state of love to want to give all of yourself to helping someone, to brighten their day, to relieve their pain. It was out of love that Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, leaving his throne at the right hand of His Father, to endure torture and death in order to save the people who believe in Him from eternal death. Now that is an incredible story, and one that has the power to save.
We can’t save people like He can, but we can show people love. Because when our relationship with readers stem foremost from love, our readers will notice it in our descriptions, characters, and themes.
Where love appears, light shines. So giving love to your readers is the best thing you could give them, the best thing you could do for yourself, and the best way to glorify God with our words.
Related Article: “How to Stay in Love With Writing, and Why It’s Important”
Related Post: “How to Revive Your Writing Mindset When the Passion Seems to Have Gone”
How to Influence Readers
Pulling this all together isn’t as tricky as you would think. In fact, the principle is easy.
To write what your readers will want to read, you must first write what you need to write.
It’s a common idea that to write for an audience, you need to write what you believe they will like. I only partly agree with this logic.
Researching the genre you are writing in is no doubt helpful for getting a feel of the style and techniques talented writers employed to hook their readers and become best sellers.
But by writing only what you believe your ideal audience will like, your words will lose power, because if your writing does not affect you first, than your reader will not feel the passion either.
To quote Robert Frost:
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost
To write what your readers need, you must first write what you need. Write what ignites your passion, what you love, and about your struggles and pain. When we write from and for truth the connection with our readers will be found without any extra effort on our part.
To give your reader something extraordinary, we must first write something that changes us.
I experienced this when writing my novel The New Dawn. The process of writing this book grew me. To write some of the scenes, I dug deep into my experiences of pain, loneliness, and betrayal to write a book which I hope someday will help someone as it helped me. I hope it gives them healing and hope as it did for me.
Related Post: “Struggles, Suicide, and How Writers Can Start Spreading Hope”
An Incredible Gift
A writer’s soul screams to tell stories, and the impact we get to make on readers is an incredible corollary.
We get to make a difference in people’s lives by loving readers we’ve never even met. We actually build a unique relationship with those who read our words—what a magnificent thing!
To know we can impact the world for the better through the words we write is astounding. What better result could we hope for?
So, love your writing. Give it your passion so it will take shape into a beautiful work of art. Pour your love onto your readers, write what your soul needs to lay out, and by do so for yourself, for others, and for the Lord’s glory.
Related Post: “How I Decided to Change the World by Writing (and how you can make a difference with me)”
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S.J. Siedenburg is a thriller & fantasy novelist, an editor, and a bibliophile with a passion for stories and helping writers finish their novels. She’s the author of the guidebooks Character Presentation, Before the First Draft, and the How to Write a Novel online course. Six of her short stories have been published through writing contests. Sarah lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” —John 1:5